My view from Seattle: theatre, life, soul and stuff.

These are not connected topics by the way.

1. DOUBT had it’s first paid preview performance Wednesday night ( 3/26) and we’re pretty pleased with the first roll-out to an audience. Laughter/chuckles at certain remarks by characters were anticipated and confirmed the audience’s focus on the play as it unfolded. And there were some audible sounds (moments of astonishment and/or shock) at the right times too. We opted for an unscheduled Q&A afterwards too, just to hear how the audience responded to the play and performance. My guess is that a third of audience stayed put - a very, very affirming sign of the audience’s active thinking, and desire to ponder the play’s themes out loud! (Preview #2 tonight - in about 4 1/2 hours actually.)

2. We went to a presentation by the Wallace Foundation on Wednesday morning. Taproot Theatre has been invited to submit a grant to the “Wallace Excellence Awards” program to fund new activities that expand audience participation and engagement. (FYI: the local invitation list is only for arts orgs with budgets of $1 million+, and based inside the Seattle city limits. A pretty exclusive bunch, and includes some of the largest, multi-million dollar budgeted arts orgs in the NW.) One of their goals is to document the results so that “best practices” can be published and duplicated by other arts organizations across the country. Yikes: the grants range from $250,000-$750,000, spread over four years! Who knows whether our proposal is funded, but the process of working on the proposal - increasing audience participation, attendance and engagement - will be very good for us and still “pay off.”

Yesterday’s meeting featured a presentation by Alan Brown of Wolf-Brown (arts consultants) that was fascinating. He’s researched and written a paper on the intrinsic benefits of the performing arts - five categories like:  Imprint of the Arts Experience, Human Interaction, Personal Development, Communal Meaning and Economic & Social Benefits. There’s a progression in the benefits that begins with the individual at the performance and works their way out to a longer term cumulative and community level. I’ve believed strongly that Theatre speaks to audiences one person at a time, but also in the benefit of the communal experience. There was also a great study on the strong link between anticipation (of the play, concert, etc.) and satisfaction (with the play, concert, etc.).  So beyond marketing hyperbole, are we missing the chance to prepare the attendee for the show? Can we offer better information on the play on-line or through a subscriber newsletter? How can we offer more background details, production photos, rehearsal notes or video clips to create a smarter and more excited attendee? Hmm. Stuff to consider…